Half Ironman FAIL!! (long)

[Tri Girl]

Ugh... I was supposed to do a half ironman today. Put on by a friend- not sanctioned and "official" but also free. We set up our transition spots and got ready just like it were race day. We had a roving sag on the course to bring us water if needed (and it was needed). There aren't any HIM races anywhere close (within a day's drive) and it's about the time we needed to be doing the distances all together to test where we're at in the training and test the nutrition. There were 6 women doing it, all of us training for a full iron distance race in September.

I swam the distance with no problem. The swim actually felt good. Got to mile 21 on the bike and was starting to feel tingly (you know, the beginnings of heat exhaustion... sheesh) and was starting to get a horrid headache, so I figured I should cut my losses to save some for the run, so I turned around and rode back to transition. 42 miles- not exactly the 56 it should have been. The hills were simply outrageous. Crazy!! I don't train on hills, and it showed. I think I went up one hill at a blazing 4 mph. On my 19 lb carbon tri bike. Nice.
Got to transition and the temps were already 105. Umm... I knew the run was going to be ugly. I made it 4 miles and nearly collapsed from the heat (welcome back tingles), so I stopped back at my car (it was three 4.3 mile loops) and called it quits.

I'm so discouraged. I feel like I'm more prepared than this. I just can't take this heat. This is day 25 in a row of over 100 degrees with no end in sight. We only usually have 10 a year- we're on 34 so far this year. I'm dying out here.

I have nothing to prove to anyone (I've done one Ironman before), but I wanted to prove to myself that I could handle the heat. I cannot. I'm whooped- mentally and physically. And very discouraged. I just have to hope in my heart of hearts that this heat wave will break and we will not be this hot in late September. Today made me question my decision to do the full, and consider switching to the half... but I'm trying to stay the course.

Am I the only one that cannot handle the heat?
Besides nutrition (which I have pretty much nailed down), what else do you do to combat the heat? I take electrolytes, drink enough (but not too much), use liquid nutrition supplemented by gu's and solid foods to get enough calories- and I still bonk in the heat.
I'm at a loss. I started having horrible heat headaches two summers ago and it's getting worse with each summer. I don't know how to make it go away. I'm wondering if it's perimenopausal? I'm having other symptoms with regard to that- maybe the headaches are hormonal?


Thanks for reading this way-too-long post.

On a side note- all 6 of us DNF'd. Nobody got further than 6 miles on the run. And two of those girls are crazy good triathletes. So at least I'm not alone in my heat suffering, but still...